Ultranarrow bandwidth Faraday atomic filter approaching natural linewidth based on cold atoms

An ultranarrow bandwidth Faraday atomic filter is realized based on cold ~(87)Rb atoms. The atomic filter operates at 780 nm on the 5~2 S_(1/2), F = 2 to 5~2 P_(3/2), F'= 3 transition with a bandwidth of 7.1(8) MHz, which is approaching the natural linewidth of the transition. The peak transmission achieves 2.6(3)% by the multi-pass probe method. This atomic filter based on cold atoms may find potential applications in self-stabilizing lasers in the future.